Barbie doll

But you know what children do with Barbie dolls—it s a bit scary, actually. ... 

Poly(vinyl chloride) Cable insulation, Barbie dolls, toys Replaced rubber in Second World War. Needs lots of additives... 

Barbie dolls have been accused of affecting children s health. How ... 

I won t dwell on the implications of all this, but I will mention that Barbara didn t get her chemistry right. The original Barbie dolls were made not of polyethylene but of polyvinyl chloride, or PVC. When this plastic was made commercially available in 1942, it became the basis of a whole slew of vinyl products. The problem with pvc is that it is extremely britde. In order to give it flexibility, manufacturers mix it with substances that can account for as much as 70 percent of the product s total weight. At one point, plasticizers such as dibutyl phthalate were used to separate the long polymer chains of pvc, allowing them to slide over one another, making the plastic pliable. 

The leaching problem was not apparent in 1976, the year that Barbie dolls were sealed in a time capsule commemorating America s bicentenary. In 2076, tricentenary celebrants will open the capsule and marvel at the twentieth-century memorabilia it... 

Let s take an example. The quintessential Barbie doll is 52 years old. In 1959, the doll was made locally and shipped directly to stores. Over the years, the source of manufacturing has changed. For 23 years, it was made in Japan. Production then shifted to Mexico, and then seven years in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Manufacturing was then changed to be sourced in Korea and the Philippines. Today, the primary manufacturing is in China, Malaysia, and Indonesia, but the component parts to assemble a doll are manufactured in 22 countries and assembled in the market where the doll is sold. In 2012, Barbie is a world traveler. 

Mangan et al. (2008) cite another example of globalization. The all-American Barbie doll s hair comes from Japan, the doll s plastic body from Taiwan, and her cotton clothing comes from China. Only the molds and pigments are made in the United States ... 

The maker of Barbie dolls and Fisher-Price toys said it had suffered a charge of about 40m beoause of the company s product scares, as sales were driven down 30- 50m by delayed shipments of toys and revoked import licenses. 

It occurred to us that Mattel could be interested in a toy based on a photosensitive paper, and we made contact to visit them. With the help of the enormous income from the Barbie Doll, Mattel developed cutting-edge toys with the help of master electronic engineer Jack Ryan. Mattel was recognized as the first toy company to take full advantage of modem technology in the Sixties. 

Barbie was actually the toy industry s first full figure doll when she appeared in 1958. She was named after Barbie Handler, the daughter of Ruth Handler, who founded the Mattel toy company in 1945. Ken, named after Handler s son, was created to keep Barbie company in 1961. Both dolls became very popular, and out of their success arose some truly bizarre ideas. 

Mattel, like many other western companies, had long moved much of its manufacturing offshore - a significant proportion of it to China, the world s largest toy exporter. Mattel used a number of contract manufacturing companies to produce a vast array of children s toys including Barbie fashion dolls and accessories, Fisher-Price toys. Sesame Street products, Winnie the Pooh and many others. In 2007 Mattel s worldwide sales were over US 5 billion. 

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